Regional/Cultural Day
Yawm al-Nakba
The anniversary of the 1948 Nakba : the catastrophe : when over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and became refugees. Over 400 villages were destroyed. The day is observed with rallies, protests, the sounding of sirens, and the reading of village names that no longer exist. The Nakba is not just history; it is the present : over 5 million Palestinians are still refugees. Keys to lost homes are carried in processions as symbols of the right of return. Al-Nakba memory is preserved in oral history, in poetry, in the names given to children : names of villages that exist now only in memory. The day is both remembrance and demand: the right of return.
